Conceived & Produced by Axis Company | Directed by Randy Sharp

Axis Company presents the revival of Benjamin A. Baker's 1848 A Glance at New York. The original production of this vaudeville play following the adventures of Mose The Fireman became the first true American stage blockbuster filling theatres for years. The Axis production is an experimental event adapted by the Company for a contemporary audience.

A Glance at New York is set during a particularly dangerous, raw and inspirational period in New York City history. It is an unmitigated conglomeration of historic filth and fury following the burly firefighter Big Mose. Known as the toughest man in the nation's toughest city, Baker's Mose was a brave trailblazer for a new kind of American theatre populated by recognizable street-familiar characters that spoke to the common man. 1848 vaudeville actors from this play have found themselves spat out onto the stage of a theatre in New York 2007. Are they historic ambassadors or panicked children on the run? Are they diseased slum inhabitants or master story tellers? What is there to guide them? Only the memory of their play and each one's love for the distant, forgetful city that threw them away.

PROGRAM NOTES
Axis Company presents the revival of Benjamin A. Baker's 1848 A Glance at New York. The original production of this vaudeville play following the adventures of Mose The Fireman became the first true American stage blockbuster filling theatres for years. The Axis production is an experimental event adapted by the Company for a contemporary audience.

A Glance at New York is set during a particularly dangerous, raw and inspirational period in New York City history. It is an unmitigated conglomeration of historic filth and fury following the burly firefighter Big Mose. Known as the toughest man in the nation's toughest city, Baker's Mose was a brave trailblazer for a new kind of American theatre populated by recognizable street-familiar characters that spoke to the common man. 1848 vaudeville actors from this play have found themselves spat out onto the stage of a theatre in 2007. Are they historic ambassadors or panicked children on the run? Are they diseased slum inhabitants or master story tellers? What is there to guide them? Only the memory of their play and each one's love of the distant, forgetful city that threw them away.

“Sharp's adaptation of ...A Glance at New York is stylistically impressive. ”

“Axis Company has shaken the dust off a lowbrow stage work ... that was a hit in 1848 and injected it with a huge dose of 21st-century adrenaline. The players don’t so much perform the show as attack you with it ... it’s a visual and aural treat.”

“Axis Company's production of 'A Glance at New York' is a remarkable experience. I'm not sure that I've ever seen any work of theatre this Brechtian and this postmodernly deconstructionist accomplish its artistic goals so effectively.”

“... a spellbinding 50-minute theatrical tour ... a must-see for anyone who enjoys wildly imaginative ensemble work ... combined with the superb, sumptuously ragged costumes by Lee Harper and Matthew Simonelli, the company cracks open a window into a now distant New York era ... Sharp builds her bridge to the past not with the typical naturalistic theater devices but with a sprawling surrealism, rambunctious as the city itself.”